Benjamin Wachs: It's settled  public spending means jobs

Friday

Both parties now admit, at least in their advertising, that government spending creates jobs. They both say it, and they both say it often. So can we finally consider this debate settled?

The new Mitt Romney TV ad says it all: The defense cuts Congress agreed to last year are threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs, so a Romney administration would reverse them.

Actually, Romney has a number of new ads making this exact point: Government spending cuts to defense are threatening jobs, and so we need a president willing to protect government spending.

This, remember, is the Republican presidential candidate.

Years ago Republicans were arguing that we needed less government, and less government spending, to get us out of our economic crisis — and they lambasted President Barack Obama for passing a stimulus. Just like they lambasted President Bill Clinton. Now their standard bearer is saying we need to protect government spending, and even increase it, in order to make sure there are enough jobs for Americans.

But never mind. Whatever. Water under the bridge. All I want to know is this: Can we now please, please, dispense with the crazy notion that government spending doesn’t create jobs?

Both parties now admit, at least in their advertising, that government spending creates jobs. And it’s not just at the national level: When both the Democratic mayor of San Francisco and the Republican executive of Monroe County, N.Y., try to justify a government funded construction project to the voters, they say, “It will create much-needed jobs.”

They both say it, and they both say it often. So can we finally consider this debate settled? Government spending can create jobs. More government spending can equal more jobs; less government spending means fewer jobs.

If you disagree, take it up with Mitt Romney and Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks and red state mayors and governors across the country — they’re the Republicans telling you it’s true. (At least when they want to spend money.)

And they’re right.

The counter-argument used to be that government can create jobs, but not as efficiently (or with as much “bang for the buck”) as the private sector. This used to be a pretty good counter-argument, but not anymore.

That’s because there used to be a clear relationship between an American company’s bottom line and its investment in American workers. Now, however, if you give the big businesses tax cuts or public investments they are more likely to send existing jobs to a foreign country or pay their CEOs massive bonuses than they are to create new jobs here at home.

It’s no accident that a year after America bailed out the financial services industry, the welfare queens at Goldman Sachs paid out record-setting bonuses to their top executives. That’s what big businesses do when they get a windfall.

We could have spent that money on America’s infrastructure, which would have kept our country competitive and created local jobs. We could have spent that money to hire more and better teachers, which would have supported America’s future and created local jobs. We could have used that money to hire more police officers, or created a small business loans program that would put Americans to work. We sure could have been using that money to hire more health care workers to support our troops as they come home from war.

That kind of government spending creates jobs and a better economy — and everyone knows it. Even Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Their ads say so. What they’re not talking about is nearly $1 trillion in unspecified cuts in the Ryan budget — stuff he’ll explain to the public after he’s elected — to teachers and law enforcement and other programs. But they’re not on TV saying that will create jobs: They know it won’t.

So let’s end this debate once and for all. Cutting government spending does not create jobs: It didn’t in Europe and it doesn’t here. Government spending, provided it’s not given directly to the rich, does create jobs. It strengthens our social fabric, and makes us more competitive. It’s good for America.

Mitt Romney approved this message.

Benjamin Wachs writes for Messenger Post Media, and is the editor of Fiction365.com. Email him at Benjamin@Fiction365.com.

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